First I would like to thank our amazing group Admin Juan Marocchi, for his hard work in getting us permission to share. As well as drafting the story below. I would also love to thank Mrs Susana Martinez, who is in charge social media at of Municipio Partido de Olavarría, who gave us permission to share this amazing piece of history.
Did you Know That the most successful car in racing history had a flathead? Did you Know that is from Argentina?
Here is the Story of “La Galera”
La Galera was a 1939 Ford Flathead Coupe that Holds the record of 17 years seasons of continuous racing and has a record of 193races 43 wins 20 second positions and 4 Consecutive Championships 1962-63-64-65 of Turismo de Carretera the most popular Argentine racing league, that is still running today, with modern cars.
It was the first car to brake the 200 km/h 125 mph average speed in a road race in Argentina doing 203,526 Km/H 127,20 MPH average in 737 Km , 460 miles race at Necochea Grand Prix in 1963
La Galera ( Galley Hat)
It was called like that because of its height, other racers of the time cut and chopped and lowered their cars but La Galera kept its original shape, the development and magic was inside in its marvellous built Flathead engine
The Owner and creators of this marvell where Dante and Torcuato Emiliozzi , two italian emigrants that where called The Gringos from Olavarria , their local town , they where excellent mechanics and experienced in lathe machining and parts fabrications they raced against racers like The 5 times F1 Champion Juan Manuel Fangio ! Juan Gálvez, 9 Turismo de Carretera championships and Jose Froilan González Ferrari F1 Pilot
The flathead engine they tuned raised the power up to 300 HP with 4 stromberg carbs and a two airplane magnetos ignition and reached 256km/H 160 MPH top Speed
The Emiliozzi Brothers also developed a overhead valve system that they used in several races until it was prohibited by the category because they where winning all the races, because of this development they where invited to Ford at Detroit to show their invention
The Turismo the carretera of that years was a racing league of road races dirt and asphalt that raced every weekend around the Argentian territory with several road circuits between 300 and 500 kms and once a year the made the Gran Premio Grand prix that lasted 10 days and a had a length of 5000 kms , and sometimes crossed from one country to another “la dos Oceanos” between Buenos Aires and Chile and the ” Buenos Aires -Caracas (Venezuela) of 1948 “the Grand Prix of Shout america ” totalling 9576 kms in 14 Stages
I wanted to share with you guys the story of La galera because is a unique car in racing History and a record holder and its a Flathead !
You can visit the Emiliozzi’s Brothers Museum in Argentina if you like I’ll post the link at the comments
My Dad and my Uncle are Huge fans of the Emiliozzi Brothers and they followed their races everywhere I Inherited their passion for Flatheads and racing from them.
Story by, Juan Marocchi
Here are some pictures and videos for you to enjoy, the sound of La Galera’s flatty is awesome !
